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10/28/11

Ride Home 10/28

My newish job has it such that I no longer work in the same building in which I park my bike and shower and change for work and now when I leave I walk across campus and get a general sense for the weather. Tonight's general sense: coldish. Not much else to say about that, other than the coldishness suggested that I wear two pairs of socks, which wasn't wholly necessary, but it's Friday, so why not indulge?
I'm never going quite as fast as I think I should be. The power of positive thinking doesn't exactly translate into velocity.
I ended up on the sidewalk on lower Massachusetts because I got stuck in the wrong lane. Quite a bumpy, unpeopled sidewalk with unexpected holes and divots and whatnot. Suboptimal. Stay on the road if you can. I merged back onto the street past California St and it was mostly fine, except for the indeterminateness (real word) of the number of lanes, which is exactly 1.5.
If you ever come to visit Washington DC, you should try to see it by bicycle. We even have a Hard Rock Cafe, so that's something.
Q street is getting lame. What's the highest number Trek Road bike your average meshie will buy? 1.2? I think that's about right. It's not really the best commuter, but it is what it is. I followed a guy for a while on one and he seemed rather zippy.
If a driver pulls in front of you and into the bike lane to avoid getting stuck in an intersection after the light changes, shoal him if there's space to get around. Why not?
11th street madness will probably not become any less mad once they're done with City Center DC. Mostly because the real 'madness' part of 11th street madness starts after H where there's virtually no lanes painted, UPS trucks everywhere, and cars turning dither (not hither and) at every street. Would it be better with a bike lane? Yes. But only a little.
Who did I see at Pennsylvania and 9th? Friend of the blog, @JDAntos. I don't think he saw me.
At 3rd and Pennsylvania, some guy shoaled into something off a power skid and stopped about 2 feet in from of me. Strangely, he started only about 5 feet behind me. The other bicyclist behind me chortled. After a couple of seconds, I looked back and him and he just sorta shrugged. Yeah, I know. I don't know what happened to shoal guy, but the other bicyclist lost his pannier when it hit a security bollard when he started riding up the Capitol driveway. Another cyclist said "I hate when that happens" as she rode by but I don't think it's ever actually happened to her and she was just trying to make him feel better.
Lots of bicyclists in and around the Hill. Some of them suffered the bad luck of not making it past the bus stop before the driver of the 97 starting pulling in, cutting them off. Just another mundane indignity of riding a bicycle.
Enjoy the winter weekend wonderland. Hopefully it's not too bad.

Yeah, it was about then. I was in the Penn lane and you were waiting to cross 9th. Hope the ride to Arlington was good. A bit nippy for my taste for a joy ride, but I'm glad you got it in before real winter.